Bob struggled to maintain a healthy weight most of his life. He’d gain significant weight, beat himself up, and then would go on extreme diets that included excessive workouts. As a successful physician, he understood better than most of us the toll on his body, but he couldn’t seem to break the unhealthy pattern of dieting and overeating. We started working together on his birthday several years ago when he volunteered to be one of my first clients using a technique pioneered in England called Functional Imagery Training, or FIT.

FIT is simple and positive. It involves tapping into motivation and vivid mental imagery. The premise, instead of the tedious schedules of dieting, weighing, etc., is for people to use their imaginations to experience the future in detail using seven senses (the five you know, plus emotion and motion).

I was the first person in the U.S. to be trained in Functional Imagery Training. At the time that I ventured to England, I was looking for a tool to help me overcome a difficult time in my life that included a recently pieced-together broken shoulder from an accident. The technique helped me get beyond my fear of reinjury, but it wasn’t until I began practicing FIT with Bob and other clients that I appreciated the potential impact of this groundbreaking approach. The first part of FIT involves active listening by the coach or therapist, finding patterns, and noticing strengths and ambiguity. Many people say they want........

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